Describe the most extreme case of alcoholism youve ever

When I was in high school I worked at a dumpy fast food place near Chicago. 3-4 times a week we'd get a small guy come in that absolutely REEKED of booze, red face, stumbling around, barely conscious. Always f****g angry about something. One time the guy literally fell asleep sitting on the toilet when he went to take a dump while waiting for his take out food.

He'd take the Metra train, walk over to get food at our dumpy joint, then stumble home with his Italian Beef and fries special.

Drove drunk one weekend night crashed into a tree, left behind his wife and 3 young kids. Stupid f**k also apparently cancelled their life insurance policy since they were heavy in debt due to his drinking ,gambling, and inability to hold down a job. The police/fire department also held a fundraiser for the wife and kids.

What a tragic story. This is why I never go beyond 3-4 beers in a night, once a week (maybe twice over holidays).

Some buds and I knew a guy that was older than us with a nasty booze problem. He tried to get some help so my friend gave him some assistance. In doing so, he came to know about this guys long history with Alcohol. He came to learn that this guy could drink 750ml of Vodka a night and his tolerances would allow him to function and do it again the next day.

I still find that hard to believe. What do you think? Can someone drink that much and not be hospitalized?

Sorry. I got my booze bottle sizes wrong. This guy drank 1750ml bottles of Vodka. Is that possible?

Stater of the Obvious... wrote:

Some buds and I knew a guy that was older than us with a nasty booze problem. He tried to get some help so my friend gave him some assistance. In doing so, he came to know about this guys long history with Alcohol. He came to learn that this guy could drink 750ml of Vodka a night and his tolerances would allow him to function and do it again the next day.

I still find that hard to believe. What do you think? Can someone drink that much and not be hospitalized?

People can build up quite a tolerance. In the worst cases an alcoholic can't go a night without drinking and may drink all day long on their days off.

Stater of the Obvious... wrote:

Some buds and I knew a guy that was older than us with a nasty booze problem. He tried to get some help so my friend gave him some assistance. In doing so, he came to know about this guys long history with Alcohol. He came to learn that this guy could drink 750ml of Vodka a night and his tolerances would allow him to function and do it again the next day.

I still find that hard to believe. What do you think? Can someone drink that much and not be hospitalized?

Dude that's a fifth of liquor (17 shots) and a hardcore alcoholic can down double that amount and still function.

ClaytonHammer wrote:

Stater of the Obvious... wrote:

Some buds and I knew a guy that was older than us with a nasty booze problem. He tried to get some help so my friend gave him some assistance. In doing so, he came to know about this guys long history with Alcohol. He came to learn that this guy could drink 750ml of Vodka a night and his tolerances would allow him to function and do it again the next day.

I still find that hard to believe. What do you think? Can someone drink that much and not be hospitalized?

Dude that's a fifth of liquor (17 shots) and a hardcore alcoholic can down double that amount and still function.

I screwed up. I meant the big bottle with a handle. 1750ml.

Stater of the Obvious... wrote:

ClaytonHammer wrote:

Dude that's a fifth of liquor (17 shots) and a hardcore alcoholic can down double that amount and still function.

I screwed up. I meant the big bottle with a handle. 1750ml.

Unfortunately, it is possible. It's also pretty much guaranteed to cause death in a relatively short amount of time. But there are degenerate alcoholics that put away that much. Truly scary stuff.

I studied with a jazz drummer who would drink scotch all day. I finally had a chance to see him play a gig and he had about a half dozen scotch on the rocks that were doubles over the course of a 90 min gig. He was barely able to walk to the bathroom during the break before the second set and was slurring his speech when we went up to say hi before the last set. But his playing was not affected at all. He was playing with a piano trio. He played everything by ear and did not need charts. They were playing some difficult arrangements and did not do him any favors. But he did not miss a beat.

I had a friend at work who fell asleep in the parking lot of a bar behind the wheel of his car. He was too blitzed to put the keys in the ignition (back in the days when we had to do this to start the car). In our state, this is drunk driving. He did not go to jail but had to have a breath machine installed in his car for several years (at his cost) and this was after a suspended license. His wife drove him to work for a year. Talk about a good spouse!

His blood alcohol was .36. I think I would be dead, but his tolerance was that high after years of drinking.

He became sober and saved his career and marriage. He won't give himself any credit for beating it. I think it is a hell of an accomplishment. He had a big family history and managed to stop. I guess he never considers himself fully cured.

Guy in the house next to our flat in Glen Park, S.F., a nice thirty something guy, had inherited a house and aot of money from his recent toy deceased Mom. Used to see him out back in the morning w a tall Bloody Mary drink every morning. Visited him pretty frequently during the day and in the evening because he was so amiable and had been a musician. He was blotto every single time and sometimes I helped him to bed. By the time we organized a little neighorhood Friendly "intervention" (before they were a thing) he sold up and moved out. Never saw him again but always wondered how he did. It's tricky business butting in to someone's life no matter how good you think your intentions are

If you wanna read some eye-opening stories, head on over to the Crippling Alcoholism subreddit. If you’re worried about your drinking habits, stories over there will dwarf your problems. The sad part is that they wear their issues as a sort of depressing badge of honor. Yikes

I do find a ton of value in the Stop Drinking subreddit though. Anyways…

Guy in Denver (homeless due to booze) passes out on the street, barfs, face stuck to the sidewalk in frozen vomit, DFD has to assist with defrosting the vomit and dude would not check himself into "Denver Step 13".

I took a job in Denver and lived in Louisville. My drinking habits had always been very moderate up until this point. I had thought beer was bloat and wine & liquor never really my thing. Then I met craft beer and took a liking to deceivingly tasting craft beers with high alcohol contents. I developed a tolerance where I could have 24oz to 30oz of beers with 10-13% alcohol. I dont think from a quantitative stabdpoint that I was as bad as others. But I'd tell myself to stop drinking only to go out that night again. This was becoming a necessity and no longer a choice. My inner monologue always torn. I'd tell myself drinking is stupid and to quit. I was already recognizing this was a problem brewing and knew it wasnt me.

Then I got very sick, no doubt the alcohol playing a role in depleting my immune system. So I stopped cold turkey for nearly 2 years between 2019 and 2021.

I returned to drinking about a handful of times since the end of July. All encounters were social and what I deemed a special occasion, emphasizing my alcohol intake as a very controlled reward system. But now that the holidays have passed I am on the fence again as to whether I should drink anymore. I last drank December 17th. I dont see the purpose really. I guess it will have to be a special occasion if I do.

From the financial standpoint I wasted like $6000-$10,000 in drinking (depending on where the line is defined) from fall 2018 to fall 2019 before I got sick. I could definitely afford it (less than 10% of my income) but I can tell you I wasnt who I wanted to be at that time and that included wasting a chunk of money on booze. There are so many more things your money can go toward that are lasting and healthy. Some of you may not even think up to $10000 in wasted monies isnt indicative of a real problem but it was a real problem for me. I'd rather be the guy who gets up at 5:47am and goes out and runs or does some other physical activity before work. And then get really good at work while putting money toward healthier habits and more enjoyable things.

That's how drinking, for the most part, has ended for me. No issues turning down booze offers. I re-prioritized and stuck to the plan..

I encourage everyone who thinks they have a problem or their mind tells them to stop and they cant, to, plainly, stop. I challenge you to go a straight calendar year without alcohol and reconvene at a later date when the time is right. You'll have a clearer set of lenses into the hourglass of time. Be well.

This is a sad yet true story.

My then 20-something cousin had 30 beers at my sister's wedding. We counted. Actually, he did. He kept the bottles on the table where he was sitting. He was not even fazed. Later he turned to meth and was arrested more than once. At his last arrest, he got a very long sentence, and he ended up killing himself in prison. He was one of the nicest, sweetest people ever, never hurt a fly other than himself...he just had a big problem with addiction.

Happy New Year!

In college, one of my teammates had a roommate that was an alcoholic. We used to get our travel bags the night before a race. The night before one of our races, his roommate got sauced up and relieved himself in my teammates travel bag. He had to run the race in a befouled uniform the next day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3IrJMumbWc

My father was a manual laborer. Construction. At the end of his workday, he would buy a cold 40 oz beer and drink it on the drive home. At dinner he would down an entire bottle of red wine. After dinner he would turn to multiple “screwdrivers”: he would fill a tall highball glass with 75% vodka and a few splashes of OJ, and do this repeatedly until he blacked out. Always up at 6am the next morning like nothing happened, ready to do it all again. Incredible capacity for self-destruction.

Beers all day on the weekends.

A raging, violent, bullying terror, we fled him for the last time when I was 10. I never saw him again after 11 or 12.

He ended up killing himself by gun in his early 60s.

My dad drank himself to death at 46. He was a mess and didn't work much after about 30. He lived off disability and aid to dependent children since my mother, who had divorced him, had died 10 years earlier. 5 kids at home, 3 others living with relatives. He drank most of our benefits. Anyway, not a great fall from prestige, or riches for my father. He was an hourly auto mechanic at his peak( nothing wrong with that) . He was bloated and falling apart like a leper when he died. ....living and drinking on the floor of an old trailer as he was dying.

My cousin and her ex husband used to enjoy partying downtown a lot. He was a sales manager who came from money and was a good looking guy. She worked a clerical job. They lived the high life and blew through a bunch of money when they were younger. Four kids later, they were going through a divorce and their youngest daughter drown in a pool while mom was drinking. Both parents became full blown alcoholics after. He developed cirrhosis and needed a transplant, dying five years later. She got into a relationship with another alcoholic and eventually drank too much and died in her sleep. Her boyfriend suffered a similar fate a year later. All died in their late 40s, early 50s.

replace alcohol with weed in all of these stories and how do they turn out?